


A Pyre of Broken Things

by josiepug



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Gen, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 12:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1070681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josiepug/pseuds/josiepug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coda to 9x09. Dean is left alone to tidy things up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pyre of Broken Things

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for 9x09. 100% angst. I own nothing.

The match struck the pyre. Flames soared upwards, desperately seeking the sky.

Dean Winchester wasn’t quite sure whether prophets’ bodies were valuable, but he didn’t want to chance it.

Or maybe he just didn’t want to admit how wrong it all felt. How empty. The heat of the flames burned his face, but he refused to walk away. He had caused this. He had been so desperate to save his family, to save Sam, that he had given up everything else. He had made the deal that cost him it all. So focused on that mission that he had hardly noticed Kevin Tran.

And now Kevin was burning, and Dean could do nothing but notice.

The prophet was being given a hunter’s burial, and Dean refused to acknowledge how wrong that was. Kevin wasn’t a hunter, wasn’t a tool or a piece of evidence to be burned after it had given up the proper information. Kevin Tran was a kid. A smart and funny kid full of dreams.

And Dean had crushed all that. Killed it. He would have liked to think that if he had just protected Kevin from Gadriel… But he knew that wasn’t really it.

Dean Winchester had been screwing up Kevin’s life since the moment that he met him. And right then, watching the golden flames consume his body, Dean couldn’t think of one reason for it. Not heaven or hell or angels or the apocalypse. Not good or evil or any great motivation. Anything to justify what he had caused.

A waste. That was it. A waste of someone who could have mattered. Someone who tried so hard to matter. Who wanted his voice to be heard.

Burning.

Dead.

There were tears running down Dean’s face. He didn’t bother to wipe them off. There was no one there to see, and what was the point of walls if they didn’t protect anything? Or anyone? All his carefully built fortifications hadn’t done anything for Kevin Tran. Or Cas. Or Sam.

What was the point when the family was gone?

There was nothing left.

The flames began to burn lower and lower, but Dean didn’t move. It was useless, he knew. There was nothing left to do. But Dean stayed in that wide open field, watching the fire die away. Stayed even after there was nothing but ash heaped thick upon the ground.

He couldn’t move. Couldn’t pull himself away. Kevin was his responsibility. Sam and Cas too. But they were all gone now. Standing sentinel over a pile of ash. That was what it had come to. Nothing more. Everything that they had worked for, stood for, had lost its worth.

It was hours before Dean Winchester finally turned away. With every step towards the Impala, he felt something in him break.

Kevin Tran was ash on the ground. And that was all he had left.

Dean Winchester was alone.


End file.
